Today’s process of breast cancer diagnosis has many issues that results in repeated radiation exposure, too many false positives, and painful biopsies. At the University of Freiburg in Germany researchers have developed a new technique for spotting breast cancer markers from just a sample of a patient’s urine. In an initial test of the technology, the method has shown itself to be 91% accurate at whether it can identify a patients as healthy or having breast cancer.
The technique relies on spotting microRNA molecules within urine that are related to cell metabolism throughout the body. The researchers wanted to see whether there are differences in concentration of specific microRNAs between people with and without breast cancer, and they discovered that four out of the nine microRNA sequences they looked for varied between healthy and diseased patients.
The first study involved 48 patients, half having a confirmed breast cancer tumor and the others being healthy volunteers. To confirm and bring the technology into clinical use in order to improve screening and monitor disease progression, the researchers have filed a patent for the technology and are working on a substantially larger clinical trial that will confirm their initial results.
Study in BMC Cancer: Feasibility of urinary microRNA detection in breast cancer patients and its potential as an innovative non-invasive biomarker…
Source: University of Freiburg…
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